The future Brisbane hotspot you haven't heard about

An artist's impression of the new University of Sunshine Coast campus at Petrie, set to open in 2020.

There's a suburb about 20 kilometres north of Brisbane that is firmly on the radar of buyers and investors.

It's not a new suburb. In fact, it's been around for more than 100 years.

But Petrie is changing in a big way and it's attracting plenty of attention from across the country.

The reason why? The suburb will be home to the country's newest university campus from 2020.

The University of Sunshine Coast (USC) Moreton Bay campus is aiming to attract 10,000 students within its first decade of operation - and that has a lot of local and interstate buyers excited.

Harcourts Pinnacle agent Lolit Bumanlag said the family-oriented suburb had long been in demand because of its affordable property prices and ongoing development in the area, including the recently expanded Petrie train station.

The announcement of the USC campus, however, had upped the ante, she said.

"I noticed that a lot of homeowners are holding off selling and the only ones that do sell are those whose circumstances have changed and have a compelling reason to sell," she said.

"Because there is little supply and huge demand for properties in the area, it drives the price up.

"Vendors are getting the price that they want and some end up selling for more due to the competition or a multiple offer situation."

While the university was one of the factors behind the suburb's robust market performance, Petrie was also located in one of Australia's fastest-growing regions.

The Moreton Bay region's population is expected to grow by 40 per cent over the next 20 years, she said.

"Growth like this gives us the strategic advantage that will create job opportunities and greater demands for housing," she said.

"It's not only investors wanting a piece of the Petrie property pie; first-home buyers are active with entry-level established houses priced between $350,000 to $450,000."

Sydney-based buyers' agent Victor Kumar from Right Property Group has been active in Petrie for the past 18 months, not only because of the USC campus but also because it was identified as a Priority Development Area (PDA) by the state government in 2016.

As well as the campus, the PDA will see the development of a new Petrie Town Centre and the fact that Caboolture was just down the road was another positive, he said.

"What a lot of people aren't figuring out is that Caboolture isn't that far out and the Base Hospital will be linked to the university as a teaching hospital. So that whole corridor will become a prime investment area," he said.

When he first started investing in Petrie for clients, Mr Kumar said he was buying properties in the high $200,000 to low $300,000 price range.

However, prices had increased significantly since that time, with buyers lucky to secure anything below $450,000, he said.

Even with reduced yields, the region still makes investment sense over the medium to long term, he said.

"You're only about 20 minutes from the airport, about 25 minutes from the Brisbane CBD and you've got massive employments nodes all around," he said.

"Investors should try to buy property with land content but it should be a long-term plan because the PDA will take 20 years to unfold.

"I believe you'll have to wait until the whole development happens to realise the true potential of your investment."

5 things you didn't know about Petrie

1. It is named after early inhabitant Tom Petrie, who died in 1910.

2. Petrie has a heritage-listed road in Anzac Avenue, which was opened in 1925.

3. The USC Moreton Bay campus will have an on-site train station.

4. The 460-hectare PDA is actually called The Mill at Moreton Bay because 200 hectares of land was previously the Petrie Paper Mill.

5. USC was selected as the university of choice following an expression of interest process by Moreton Bay Regional Council.